14 universities rank in top 100 in U.K. review

A leading higher education publication from the United Kingdom announced yesterday that 14 Korean institutes are ranked among its top 100 Asian universities.

The Times Higher Education ranked Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) fifth, Seoul National University eighth and Kaist at 10th. Japan’s Tokyo University topped the list.

Korea is the best represented country in the top 10, while it represents the fourth-best represented in the entire list, following China, Taiwan and top-ranked Japan. Other Korean institutes that made the list include Yonsei University (20), Sungkyunkwan University (23) and Korea University (28). Colleges like Kyung Hee University (64), Hanyang University (74) and Sogang University (78) share the honor as well.

“While the Republic of Korea [South] is always a strong performer in the World University Rankings, the Asia table shows its strength in depth,” noted Phil Baty, editor of the magazine.

“While six of its institutions make the world top 400 list, it has 14 institutions in the regional top 100 - and more in the top 10 than any other nation. This shows how many more of its institutions are close to the top global standards,” said the editor in a statement.

The U.K.-based magazine also offers a promising prospect for the Korean education field, with the editor saying, “Given that the nation’s academy is on an upwards trajectory, benefitting from a deep national commitment to education, the signs are very good indeed.”

Despite the praise for Korea’s advancement in higher education institutes, the research also underlined the fields where Korea lags behind.

Korea trails behind other Asian counterparts in terms of paper citation counts with only one institute, Postech, on the top 20 list in the category. No Korean institute appeared in the category that ranks the top 20 most globalized schools.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which started in 2004, provides a range of rankings to measure the power of universities’ global brands. It used 13 separate performance indicators that can measure the standards of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook for this year’s first-ever Asia’s top 100 university list.

By Park Eun-jee, Chun In-sung [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]